KY – A unique work environment?

If someone would ask me what I love the most about my job as a Secretary for Clubs and Societies, my answer would be pretty simple. The people, and the atmosphere at KY.

The best thing at the KY Office is the crazy and trusting atmosphere, where you’re given this incredible freedom to pursue your ideas. Whatever idea you might have, and how impossible it might sound, the people around you are always supporting you and will most likely get excited and help to make it true. (Although, if your idea isn’t as good as you think, they’ll tell you that as well, for sure.)

However, the people at KY doesn’t mean just the ones working at the office, but also the ones you’re working for: the members and volunteers of KY. This is especially true in my job, as I work for our volunteers only, and my job wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for them. In order to excel in this job, you must have the right energy and attitude to support our volunteer groups and offer them all the help they might need. This includes e.g. advising the members in founding new clubs or our 60+ associations in applying funding or using our premises. Helping people out is the most rewarding part of this job, as you enable that our members get meaningful experiences and the most out of KY.

Many of you might wonder what does this supporting mean, and what do I actually do here all day long. In a nutshell, my work includes advising and supporting our associations and other volunteer groups operating under KY. This means countless emails, fb-messages, inquieries and info letters to provide all the necessary information. Besides helping the volunteers, my job includes a lot of budgeting, programming the key cards and organizing trainings for our various volunteer groups. I also act as a Secretary of the Sports and Wellbeing committee, which is a big part of the job.

So, as almost all jobs at KY are somehow related to serving our volunteers, how does my job differ from other secretary posts? Even though the work description is nowadays quite stabilized, a lot of things at KY are always under the pressure to change. This means that the person working in this position must have a strong will to develop the job itself further and constantly question what is the best way to do things and how could it be done differently. For example, how could we support all the association members in the best possible way? Or what kind of events could we organize that would offer them extra value?

These are the kind of questions that I’m thinking every day and I’m given a lot of responsibility and freedom to do things how I see best. However, although most of my work is really independent, I’m lucky enough to have these supportive colleagues and volunteers working with me. Helping me to make KY even better place to grow, learn and get new experiences. This unique working environment is really something worth acquiring for.

Maija Kirveennummi

Secretary for Clubs and Societies

maija.kirveennummi@kyweb.fi, 040 353 8285

The application period for KY Secretaria 2017-18 is open 3.-17.4.2017. Read more here and apply!